Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id NAA19210 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Mon, 20 May 2002 13:07:48 +0100 Date: Mon, 20 May 2002 08:01:53 -0400 Subject: Re: morality and memes Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed From: "Wade T.Smith" <wade_smith@harvard.edu> To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit In-Reply-To: <570E2BEE7BC5A34684EE5914FCFC368C10FCDC@fillan.stir.ac.uk> Message-Id: <5FC4B224-6BE9-11D6-9A6F-003065B9A95A@harvard.edu> X-Mailer: Apple Mail (2.481) Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
On Monday, May 20, 2002, at 06:54 , Vincent Campbell wrote:
> Can
> morals be culturally transmitted, if so, how?
That definition would seem to be a partially working one. Morals are
hugely cultural, but, they are also hugely a part of the nature/nurture
problem.
Problems in morality are dealt with in various ways, and it is the
persecution and punishment of non-accepted conduct that is transmitted,
through laws and hierarchies and biases and other notices and
condemnations of society.
> More
> fundamentally are morals innate, or culturally produced? If the latter,
> how/why do some spread more than others? Are what we perceive of as
> innate
> values, actually environmentally specific- which I mean in a way
> distinct
> from culturally specific (e.g. isolated communities favouring polygamy
> due
> to a gender imbalance).
Morals are like what we eat- the hunger is innate, but a lot of the
actual food is memetic.
The memetics of vegetarianism vs. the morality of monogamy, for instance.
- Wade
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